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With her distinctive sleek braid and fiery oratory, Yulia Tymoshenko is back in the center stage of Ukraine politics. And it's almost like she never left.

Tymoshenko, 53, was freed from prison Saturday after two-and-a-half years, most of them spent in a detention hospital.

Dressed in black, she later emerged at Kiev's Independence Square in a wheel chair. Cheers erupted.

Tearfully, she hailed the sea of protesters, who listened and occasionally waved.

"Today, Ukraine has finished with this terrible dictator," she said, referring to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.

Photos: Key players in Ukraine 5 photos

Photos: Key players in Ukraine5 photos

Key players in Ukraine – President Viktor Yanukovych, elected in 2010, appears to be gone from the capital, though it is unclear if he plans to resign. The wave of unrest in Ukraine began in November, when Yanukovych scrapped a European Union trade deal and turned toward Russia. Part of the deal was to release his political opponent, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

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Photos: Key players in Ukraine5 photos

Key players in Ukraine – Yulia Tymoshenko lost the 2010 presidential election to Yanukovych. The following year, she was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of abuse of authority over a natural gas deal negotiated with Russia, a punishment that the U.S. and Europe sees as politically motivated. Tymoshenko was freed from prison on Saturday, February 22, according to the press officer for her political party. Tymoshenko is seen here at her trial in 2011.

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Photos: Key players in Ukraine5 photos

Key players in Ukraine – Vitali Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion, has been the biggest and most well-known opposition figure during the crisis. Klitschko heads the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms party. In a sign of his influence, it was Klitschko who went to Yanukovych's office for negotiation talks.

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Key players in Ukraine – Arseniy Yatsenyuk has led the opposition Batkivshchyna party, to which jailed former Prime Minister Tymoshenko belongs, since December 2012. He can claim experience in government, having been chairman of Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, from 2007 to 2008, according to the website of his foundation, Open Ukraine.

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Key players in Ukraine – Oleh Tyahnybok has headed the nationalist, far-right opposition party Svoboda, or Freedom, for the past decade. Tyahnybok was first elected to a local council position in 1994 and was elected to the parliament four years later. He became head of the party in 2004, when it changed its name from the Social National Party of Ukraine to Svoboda. Concerns have been raised in some quarters about the extremist views allegedly held by some members of the party.

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EXPAND GALLERY

Ukraine's 2014 revolution 50 photos

Ukraine's 2014 revolution50 photos

Ukrainian demonstrators gather in Kiev's Maidan, or Independence Square, on February 21, 2014, a day after the bloodiest day of revolution protests. Nearly 50 activists were killed and hundreds more injured in clashes in the square on February 20, 2014. The street protests soon led to the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and triggered a chain of events that included Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fighting in Eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatist forces.

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Ukraine's 2014 revolution50 photos

A protester aims a gun in the direction of suspected sniper fire in Kiev on Thursday, February 20. Thousands of demonstrators had packed Independence Square since November when President Viktor Yanukovych reversed a decision on a trade deal with the European Union and instead turned toward Russia.

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Police use water cannons against protesters in Kiev on February 20.

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An injured protester is carried away from Independence Square on a stretcher February 20.

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Captured police officers are led away by protesters in Kiev on February 20.

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A woman on February 20 mourns over protesters who were killed during clashes.

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Protesters rebuild barricades in Independence Square on February 20.

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Riot police face protesters in Kiev on February 20.

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Protesters man a barricade on the outskirts of Independence Square on February 20.

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An injured protester is evacuated from Independence Square on February 20.

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A priest walks with a cross and shield during clashes in central Kiev on February 20.

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Medics embrace in the lobby of the Hotel Ukraine on February 20.

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A high-ranking police officer, left, and a representative for the protesters speak with each other near the Cabinet of Ministers in Kiev on February 20.

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Protesters light Molotov cocktails in Kiev on February 20.

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Protesters clash with police in Independence Square on February 20.

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Protesters move up an embankment in Kiev on February 20.

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An injured demonstrator is carried away from Independence Square on February 20.

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A protester shouts during clashes with police on February 20.

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Protesters run from a burning barricade in Kiev on February 20.

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A protester rolls a tire toward burning barricades on February 20.

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Protesters advance to new positions in Kiev on February 20.

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Fireworks explode over protesters in Independence Square on Wednesday, February 19.

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A protester throws a Molotov cocktail in Kiev on February 19.

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Protesters clash with police in Independence Square on February 19.

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Protesters use a compressed air cannon to launch a Molotov cocktail toward police lines in Independence Square on February 19.

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A protester hurls a Molotov cocktail toward police on February 19.

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Police take cover behind shields as fireworks go off in Kiev on February 19.

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Police form a barrier in Independence Square on February 19.

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Protesters throw rocks at riot police in Independence Square on February 19.

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Independence Square smolders during protests on February 19.

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Riot police officers rest against a column in Independence Square on February 19.

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An injured protester is moved out during clashes with riot police in Kiev on February 19.

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Protesters protect themselves with shields as they clash with police in Kiev on February 19.

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Protesters sleep on the floor inside a Kiev monastery on February 19.

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A protester rushes through a broken door in the regional prosecutor's office in Lviv, Ukraine, on February 19. Police said the unrest has spread to western Ukraine, with protesters attacking police and local government offices in a number of regions.

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Protesters in Lviv burn papers from a government building on February 19.

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A protester runs during clashes with police in Kiev on Tuesday, February 18.

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Violence between police and protesters escalates February 18 in Kiev.

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Protesters burn a car in central Kiev on February 18.

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A protester stands atop a barricade in Kiev on February 18.

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Protesters clash with riot police outside Ukraine's parliament in Kiev on February 18.

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A rainbow forms over a protester ducking for cover in Kiev on February 18.

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Riot police protect themselves during clashes in Kiev on February 18.

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A protester is engulfed in flames while running from the clashes in Kiev on February 18.

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Riot police detain a protester in Kiev on February 18.

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Protesters invade the main office of the ruling Party of Regions in Kiev on February 18.

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Riot police shield themselves during clashes with protesters on February 18.

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Protesters throw stones toward riot police in Kiev on February 18.

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She then passed on a not-so-subtle message.

"There'll be no Ukraine but the Ukraine you want," she said. "And I'm the guarantor of that Ukraine."

The polarizing former Prime Minister has a complicated relationship with Yanukovych, who fled the capital Saturday after days of bloody protests that killed dozens.

Both have dominated the nation's politics for years. Both have a rivalry that dates years.

Before she joined politics, she worked in the gas industry, including a stint as president of an energy company in the 1990s.

Her international popularity soared a decade ago as a result of her ardent speeches that helped overturn Yanukovych's presidential win in 2004. She's considered a hero of the country's 2004 Orange Revolution, a wave of peaceful protests that swept her and Viktor Yushchenko into power as Prime Minister and President, respectively.

After Yanukovych won that election, Tymoshenko, was forced out of office and into the courtroom. In 2011, she was on trial over a costly natural gas agreement that she signed with Russia while she was Prime Minister.

In October of that year, a Ukrainian court found her guilty of abuse of authority for signing overpriced gas contracts with Russia and sentenced her to seven years in prison.

The prosecutor said the gas deals inflicted damage to the country amounting to more than 1.5 billion hryvnias (almost $190 million at the exchange rate at the time). In addition to the sentence, the court ruled she must repay the money.

Amnesty International slammed the verdict as "politically motivated" and called for the release of Tymoshenko, who was Prime Minister from January to September 2005, and December 2007 to March 2010.

The case against her was widely considered politically motivated, and the United States and other Western nations called her "a political prisoner."

Hunger strike

Her activism work continued while she was behind bars. Two years ago, she went on a hunger strike to draw attention to "violence and lack of rights"after she was allegedly beaten unconscious by guards. She ended her hunger strike after three weeks and agreed to receive medical treatment.

Tymoshenko was freed Saturday after parliament ordered charges against her dropped.

She went from her hospital bed, and into the twists and turns of Ukrainian politics.